Resident Evil: Afterlife
| starring = Milla Jovovich Ali Larter Kim Coates Shawn Roberts Sergio Peris-Mencheta Spencer Locke Boris Kodjoe Wentworth Miller Kacey Barnfield Norman Yeung | music = tomandandy | cinematography = Glen MacPherson | editing = Niven Howie | studio = Constantin Film Davis Films Impact Pictures | distributor = Screen Gems | released = | runtime = 96 minutes | country = Canada Germany United States | language = English | budget = $60 million | gross = $296,221,663 }} 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' is a 2010 3D science fiction action horror film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Spencer Locke, Boris Kodjoe, and Wentworth Miller. The film marks Anderson's second time to direct in the series, the first being the first installment. It is the first to be shot in 3D and fourth installment in the [[Resident Evil (film series)|''Resident Evil film series]], which is based on the Capcom survival horror video game series of the same name. The film follows Alice searching and rescuing the remaining survivors in Los Angeles after the T-virus outbreak, and teaming up against Albert Wesker, the head of the Umbrella Corporation. Chris Redfield, a primary character from the video games, was featured for the first time in the film franchise. Other characters from the games and films who returned are: Claire Redfield, Chris' sister who has lost her memory prior to the film's events; Albert Wesker, the film's primary antagonist; and Jill Valentine, who made a cameo appearance. In May 2005, producers mentioned the possibility of following Extinction with a sequel titled Afterlife. Extinction was released in 2007 and was a box office success prompting Afterlife to begin development in June 2008, with the script being written by Anderson that December. Elements from the video game Resident Evil 5 (2009) were incorporated into the film. Filming took place in Toronto from September to December 2009 using the 3D Fusion Camera System. The film was released in 3D and IMAX 3D theaters on September 10, 2010. The film grossed $60 million in the United States and Canada on an estimated $60 million budget, and made $236 million in other markets surpassing the previous film's overseas total in the second week of release. Grossing a worldwide total of $296 million, Resident Evil: Afterlife became the highest-grossing entry of the series with the overseas total almost equaling the previous films' overseas total combined. Resident Evil: Afterlife was released to DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on December 28, 2010 in the United States. Plot In Tokyo, Japan, on the Shibuya Square, a huge crowd is erupting on the square, passing while the rain goes. However, one girl (Mika Nakashima) is standing in the middle of the street. It is revealed that she is actually the Japan T-Virus patient zero, and she quickly attacks a man on the street, infecting him. 4 years later, An Alice clone (Milla Jovovich) attempts to kill Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts) at the current Umbrella Headquarters, which is a huge structure underground, just beneath the same Shibuya Square, with her army of clones. The clones manage to kill the main security and the entire branch of Umbrella employees, but, Wesker makes his way to his private charter helicopter and escapes, before activating the fused bomb, which destroys the base, kills all the clones, and also erupts the entire square. However, the real Alice boarded his aircraft beforehand. During their fight, Wesker uses a serum to remove all of Alice's powers before the lack of a pilot makes the aircraft crash. Alice somehow survives the crash while Wesker seemingly perishes. Six months later, Alice travels back to North America in an airplane following emergency broadcasts from a safe haven known as Arcadia in Alaska, United States (written of in the diary she found years ago). En route, Alice is attacked by Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), who is being controlled by a device (a red spider-shaped device placed on her chest by Umbrella); the device's destruction causes Claire to have amnesia. The two travel to the ruins of Los Angeles in a Yak-52 plane, where they find a group of survivors living in a prison surrounded by the infected. Luther West (Boris Kodjoe) a former pro-basketball player, leads the small band which includes Wendell (Fulvio Cecere), Crystal Waters (Kacey Barnfield), Bennett (Kim Coates) and Kim Yong (Norman Yeung), and Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta). With their help, Alice lands her plane on the roof of the prison and learns that Arcadia is not a fixed place but actually a cargo tanker traveling along the coast, and has docked in the port. A disturbing piece of news is that Arcadia has stopped all broadcasts and has remained still 2 days ago, and since the prison is surrounded, there is no way to reach the ship safely, and Claire reveals that she remembers that she arrived at the Arcadia with the survivors, but she has no memory of anything further than that. Alice and the survivors decide to find an alternate means to make it to the Arcadia, so Luther takes her to the only remaining prisoner inside; Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller), a prisoner under lockdown in the facility. He is insisting he fell victim to a cruel joke by some escaped prisoners, and that he knows an alternate route out of the prison, while Luther reveals he is keeping him prisoner because he is afraid of what he could do to the other survivors. One day, Luther guides her to the shower to heat up, but she discovers Wendell, who was trying to peep on her. As she holds him at gunpoint, she is attacked by a group of Majini infected that managed to tunnel into the prison, and Wendell is infected as well, but she manages to kill them all. Alice, seeing as they are out of options, decides to set Chris free, who, as he exits out, notices Claire, who is actually his sister. Chris reveals that the prison keeps an armored car that can be used to escape. However, a giant axe-wielding monster begins breaking down the gate outside. To overcome the problems, Alice, Chris and Crystal go deeper into the prison to retrieve additional guns from the armory; Luther and Claire attempt to reinforce the gate to keep the Axeman and other zombies at bay. As Alice, Chris and Crystal make it to the armory, zombies swarm them, overpowering and devouring Crystal. Angel informs Bennett and Yong the vehicle is missing its engine and it would take a week to fix. Panicking, Bennett shoots Angel, abandons Yong, and heads for Arcadia in Alice's airplane, slaying some zombies along the way due to poor piloting skills. Below, the Axeman breaks down the gate, allowing the zombies to enter the facility. With no other choice, the group decides to use the zombie-dug tunnels to escape into the sewers. Yong is suddenly slashed into half by the Axeman, whom Alice and Claire then face. Alice attempts to fight it first and it knocks her out; Claire then defends Alice and just before it kills her, Alice awakes and saves them both. The two meet back up with Chris at the end of the sewers but they lose Luther to a zombie who drags him back into the sewers. Alice and the Redfields commandeer a boat and board the Arcadia, discovering it's functional but abandoned. Claire suddenly regains her memory, and reveals Arcadia was an Umbrella trap to gather survivors to be used as test subjects; they haven't learn from their mistakes. The trio begin releasing survivors, among them K-Mart (Spencer Locke). Seeing a trail of blood leading from an empty test subject container, Alice follows it deeper into the ship. As she expected, Alice finds Wesker, revived by the T-virus. However, Wesker is battling the virus for control of his body, something he believes could be pacified by fresh human DNA; this made the Umbrella staff flee in terror. As Alice is the only person to bond at a cellular level with the T-virus and successfully retain control, Wesker plans to eat her to assimilate this ability. The Redfields arrive and attack Wesker while Alice battles two dogs and Bennett, who has allied himself with Wesker. Wesker easily overpowers Chris and Claire, but Alice is able to defeat both Bennett and Wesker with help from K-Mart. While leaving, they lock Bennett in the room with Wesker's corpse; Bennett is devoured by Wesker when he revives. Wesker then escapes in an aircraft, activating a bomb on the Arcadia; the plane explodes instead as Alice placed the bomb there, thinking it might be set off. Unbeknownst to them, a figure parachutes away from the explosion, while Luther emerges from the sewers, battered but alive. Alice resolves to turn Arcadia into a real safe haven and broadcasts a new message for any other survivors. Claire, Chris, K-Mart, and Alice soon see an approaching Umbrella assault helicopter squadron. During the post-credits scene in one of the helicopters, Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who went missing after Resident Evil: Apocalypse, is dictating the attack wearing the same mind control device used on Claire,End credits. which slightly glows at the end of the scene, thus setting up the events of Resident Evil: Retribution. Cast * Milla Jovovich as Alice; a former Umbrella Corporation security officer whose exposure to the T-Virus granted her superhuman abilities. * Ali Larter as Claire Redfield; Chris' younger sister who led a convoy of survivors who encountered Alice in the previous film. * Wentworth Miller as Chris Redfield; Claire's older brother who is working with an unnamed military organization combating the infected. * Boris Kodjoe as Luther West; a former professional basketball player and the leader of the survivors of Los Angeles. * Kim Coates as Bennett Sinclair; an former film producer and one of the survivors of Los Angeles * Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker; the Chairman of the Umbrella Corporation who possesses superhuman strength, speed, and regenerative capabilities. * Spencer Locke as K-Mart; a young girl named after the department store where she was discovered hiding, and a member of Claire's convoy of survivors in the previous film. * Kacey Barnfield as Crystal Waters; a junior champ in swimming in her high school days, she came to Los Angeles to work as an actress and is one of the survivors. * Norman Yeung as Kim Yong; Bennett's former intern before the virus outbreak. * Sergio Peris-Mencheta as Angel Ortiz, a survivor in Los Angeles. * Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine; a former S.T.A.R.S. operative who assisted Alice and escaped Raccoon City in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. * Mika Nakashima as J-Pop Girl; Japan's patient zero, first infected person there. * Ray Olubowale as the Axeman; a monster taken from the game Resident Evil 5 (known as The Executioner). Production Development '' was a practical joke with his imprisonment and his first line being, "I know a way out of here."]] In May 2005, producers mentioned the possibility of following Extinction with a sequel entitled Afterlife, to be shot and set in Tokyo, Japan and Alaska. Despite Resident Evil: Extinction being billed on the official website and elsewhere as the final installment of the Resident Evil film series; on September 23, 2007, Rory Bruer, Sony's head of distribution explained, "It absolutely would not surprise me considering the success of the franchise that they find a way to come up with another. It's a real possibility." Producer Jeremy Bolt also stated that while there was no intention of making a fourth film, that the third had been particularly well done and that Paul Anderson was talking with Sony about the possibility. In June 2008, Anderson noted that negotiations were underway with Sony for creating the film. In December 2008, Anderson stated that he was working on the script. The following year, it was announced that Sony was aiming to release Resident Evil: Afterlife by August 27, 2010. Casting trained for six weeks to perform his own stunts. He dislocated his knee in the course of filming while trying to kick in a gate.]] In September 2006, reports indicated that casting for the fourth film had begun, with Jensen Ackles being considered for the role of Leon S. Kennedy. Ali Larter missed seven episodes of filming the television show Heroes in order to appear in the film. Before Wentworth Miller was cast as Chris Redfield, actor Johnny Messner auditioned for the role. Having never played the Resident Evil video games, Miller began preparing for the role by searching the internet for images of Chris Redfield. Much to his surprise, he noticed how muscular the character was; with only three weeks to prep before shooting, he knew it was impossible to increase his muscle mass to that extent. He was shown video footage of the games and saw how he was visually different, especially in the first game. He did cardio to build up endurance. Miller described his interpretation on the character from the video game as, "He's definitely capable and heroic, but there's also something quite innocent. He was still freshly scrubbed, in a way, at the beginning of this horrifying journey." He described his take as the character in the film, "My Chris has been walking down this particular road for quite some time. The edges are sharper, and they’re way more jagged." Shawn Roberts was originally going to audition for Chris Redfield before Miller accepted the role. He went to audition for the role of Albert Wesker, a role previously played by Jason O'Mara. Describing the character Roberts said, "the Chairman of the Umbrella Corporation. He is in a position of power. He pretty much runs the world, and Alice is an annoyance. It's a whole process: I get to set and wardrobe gives me this big, long black jacket, and props comes over and gives me the dark glasses and the gloves. By the time you are all dressed you stand a little straighter, you walk a little differently. He's got everything going for him—he's super fast, super strong, has the ability to regenerate—it's all the elements from the game. That was one thing we all agreed on from the start: this character has to be for the fans." Sienna Guillory reprises her role as Jill Valentine, who was last seen in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. She is featured briefly in a scene shown during the credits, setting up the sequel. Cinematography and set design Anderson was shown footage of James Cameron's Avatar which sold him on the idea to shoot Resident Evil: Afterlife in digital 3D. He shot in high-definition with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 using Cameron's Fusion Camera System, or more specifically a Sony F35 camera. The crew spent two weeks in pre-production learning the 3D camera system. With a budget of about $60 million, principal photography took place for 55 days from September 29, 2009 to December. Filming in 3D added 20% to the budget. Roberts began filming his scenes on October 10, 2009. The final showdown scene was filmed for about six days. During production Jovovich accidentally shot out a $100,000 camera. 's exterior was used to portray the prison.]] was used to portray Umbrella Corporation's underground Tokyo headquarters. Anderson said "It had a fantastic atrium that had these huge floating pill shapes in it. Inside the pills were conference rooms. We shot at night so there was no ambient light coming into the glass, and then with visual effects replaced the glass with concrete walls".]] For slow motion scenes like with bullets and drops of water, twin Phantom high-speed cameras were used which filmed 200 frames per second. A fight scene with Wesker and Chris in the Resident Evil 5 game was recreated shot-by-shot for the film and the Phantom cameras were used to create Wesker's superhuman speed which took about two days to film. The added size and weight of the 3D cameras meant the filmmakers were not able to use existing equipment such as Steadicam rigs. Instead the camera operator worked on a Segway to achieve the look of a Steadicam shot. Much of the action scenes were shot in front of a green screen. A 1983 Yak-52 was used throughout the film by Jovovich and Larter. Stunt pilot Martin Mattes was dressed like Jovovich and flew the plane for the camera. The 3D cameras were unable to pick up anything shiny, such as stainless steel, due to a flare. Set decorator Cal Loucks said that most items that looked metal were actually painted silver with special paint to remove its reflective quality. The saturation of colors also had to be changed to accustom the 3D cameras, which are "slow to pick up information". Loucks said, "It's a very restrictive color palette. For example, in this warehouse scene, we saturated the floors in a dark, dark charcoal, and we thought that was enough, but then the cameras showed them as still being too light. So we had to add more and more black. The reason I say it's too light is because we are putting more light onto these sets than we ever have before." Filming locations Principal photography was done mostly at Cinespace Film Studios in Toronto, Ontario. Toronto police received hundreds of calls from concerned neighbors after a scene involving a burning plane crashed. For the underwater scenes, cargo shipping containers were cut and welded to make a giant tank on stage. The opening scene was filmed at the Shibuya Crossing in Shibuya, Tokyo. Interior scenes of Umbrella Corporation's subterranean lair were filmed at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. Robarts Library was used to portray exterior shots of a Los Angeles prison due to its resemblance to a prison, and other scenes were shot at University of Toronto Scarborough. Scenes portraying an Alaskan aircraft boneyard were actually filmed at Oshawa Airport. A location depicting an Alaskan beach was filmed at Sandbanks Provincial Park. Second unit was sent to Alaska to capture establishing shots of the scenery. Visual and special effects Visual effects were done by Rocket Science VFX and Mr. X Inc. Paul Jones served as the special effects creator, who previously designed the Nemesis character in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The production team planned to use extras to portray 300 zombies at once, but time restraints prevented that. Around 150 zombies were eventually used and Mr. X Inc's visual effects supervisor, Dennis Berardi, added more in post-production. For Alice's clones they shot motion control photography for multiple passes of Jovovich. For the wide shots they took digital photo doubles. Visual effects production manager Eric Roberston described the look of the film, "interesting contrasts, pure whites, which is a staggering look. It's so clean and tight along with some real darkness too that may evoke a bit of a feel of Silent Hill. So we've got the extremes, but it's definitely a unique look for this incarnation and it's been fun to see those looks." A burned cityscape with ash and smoke in the sky was created to depict a postapocalyptic Los Angeles, in which most of the film is set. Bolt described this approach as, "In a world that has gone to hell in a handbasket, there's no control and no fire service, so clearly, what's going to happen to LA is it's going to get burned." The infected dobermans from the games and previous films return, but are more advanced. The dogs wore a costume with prosthetics. Anderson wanted to make the dogs in this film look "absolutely terrible". Computer effects were used to make the dog's jaw flare open, with tentacles coming out of their mouths similar to the dogs from the fourth and fifth video games. Other creatures borrowed from the fifth video game are the "Majini" who are more intelligent and have mandibles and tentacles coming out of their mouths, and "The Executioner" (named the Axeman in the film). Release about the film.]] In August 2009 it was announced that the film would be released on August 27, 2010, but that December it was set back to January 14, 2011. In January 2010, it was announced that the release date was moved to September 10, 2010. Screen Gems paid Constantin Film, Davis Films and Impact Pictures $52 million for the rights to distribute the film in North American and "most key foreign markets". On April 3, 2010, Anderson, Jovovich and Larter attended WonderCon for a Resident Evil: Afterlife panel answering fan questions. On July 24, 2010, they attended the San Diego Comic-Con International to promote the film. Soundtrack The Resident Evil: Afterlife: Music from the Motion Picture was composed by tomandandy and released on by Milan Records. In addition to the original soundtrack, "The Outsider" (Apocalypse Remix) by alternative metal group A Perfect Circle was used for the marketing the film, along with a short segment of it being played during the confrontation between Alice and Wesker, as well as playing over the end credits. Home media Resident Evil: Afterlife was released to DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on in the United States. Special features on the DVD includes a filmmaker commentary and two featurettes. The Blu-ray releases includes the same and also with deleted and extended scenes, additional featurettes and outtakes. Box office United States and Canada Resident Evil: Afterlife opened on approximately 4,700 screens in 3,203 locations, with 2,062 of the locations showing on 3D-equipped screens and 141 in IMAX 3D, ranking as one of the largest 3D releases at the time. In Canada the film opened in an additional 250 theaters through Alliance Films. The film opened at number one and took in $10.7 million on its opening day and $26.6 million on its opening weekend. By its second weekend the film had dropped to fourth place with new release The Town taking its first place spot. It grossed $10 million, a 63% decrease in ticket sales from its opening weekend. It fell to seventh place by its third weekend, grossing $4.9 million and was removed from 567 theaters. On its fourth weekend, Resident Evil: Afterlife moved to eleventh place with the new release Case 39 at number one, while grossing $2.7 million and being dropped from 735 theaters. For the film's fifth weekend it made $1.2 million, a 54% decrease from the previous weekend and was removed from an additional 895 theaters. For its sixth, seventh and eight weekends it had dropped to $347,264, $137,502 and $70,474, respectively and was playing in 140 theaters by its eight and final weekend. The film closed out of theaters on after 56 days of release. Other territories On September 15, Resident Evil: Afterlife opened in 30 territories taking Inception first place and grossing $42.3 million from 3,559 screens with 3D screenings accounting for 81% of its total earnings. It was also the largest overseas debut of the series. More than one-third of the total came from a $15.5 million three-day launch in Japan. Additionally, the film grossed $6.4 million in Russia, $3.3 million in Spain, $2.95 million in Taiwan and $2.6 million in the United Kingdom. During its second weekend the film grossed $40 million, with $5.3 million being in Germany, $3.2 million in Mexico, $3.1 million in South Korea and $2.9 million in Brazil. For its second weekend, Japan grossed $5.1 million and Russia with $4.2 million. By September 19 it had passed Resident Evil: Extinction $97.1 million overseas total. The following day it had out-grossed Extinction worldwide total with $103.2 million overseas and $148.8 million worldwide and became the highest-grossing entry of the series. In its third weekend, it stayed at number one grossing $24.3 million, opening in France with $3.5 million and Hong Kong with $768,324. The film remained at number one for its fourth weekend grossing $15.6 million. On its fifth weekend it grossed $8 million, dropping to fifth place and being replaced at number one by Eat Pray Love. Though on its eleventh weekend it grossed $9.1 million, with $9 million coming from its opening in China. Resident Evil: Afterlife fell short of approximately $1.5 million to equal the previous three film's international grosses combined. Worldwide overview The film grossed $60 million in the United States and Canada with $236 million in other markets for a worldwide total of $296 million. In the United States, the high box office gross was attributed to the ticket price inflation of the 3D presentation, but the film had the lowest opening weekend attendance of the film series. On November 23, 2010 Resident Evil: Afterlife, became the most successful production in Canadian feature film history, as well as the highest grossing zombie film.http://boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=zombie.htm Reception Critical response Resident Evil: Afterlife was not screened in advance for critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 23% based on reviews 94 critics, with a rating average of 4.1 out of 10. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 37 based on 14 reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a B minus on an A plus to F scale. Michael Ordoña of the Los Angeles Times gave it a positive review, noting the slower cut of the film and saying "the action is easier to read than in most films of the genre, and therefore more enjoyable. Anderson makes particular use of sets and locations to wring out more bang for the stereoscopic buck". Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian gave the film two stars out of five praising the use of 3D, while stating that the Resident Evil films "always look good and have well-staged action, but they don't have one iota of originality or imagination". Chicago Reader s Andrea Gronvall described the plot as "nearly indiscernible" but did call the film the "sleekest so far, thanks to 3D and star Milla Jovovich's body-hugging catsuit". Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying "Cannibalizing John Carpenter's Thing and much of the sci-fi-horror canon, Afterlife is more moribund than its thronging undead". David Edwards of the Daily Mirror compared it to Resident Evil: Extinction, stating that the "results are even less impressive, which is saying quite something" and "only fans of the series will care with the film looking suspiciously like a series of barely connected action scenes and unimpressive 3D welded to a who-the-hell-cares? plot". Spill.com critics Corey Koleman and Co-Host 3000 gave the film a "Some ol' bullshit", the site's second lowest rating. They criticized the film's overuse of slow motion, lack of explanation of certain plot elements and long lapses in between action, but gave the film points for its cinematography, small bits of action, 3D and the special effects of the Axeman. Andrew Barker of Variety compared the film to the previous installment as "equally moribund, and perhaps even more shamelessly derivative". He compared Roberts' Wesker to Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith from The Matrix, calling it a "slipshod impression". A particularly scathing review came from Brian Orndorf of Dark Horizons, who commented: "Perhaps the first 3D motion picture to simulate the experience of watching paint dry, Resident Evil: Afterlife is a dreadful bore that only occasionally comes to life." Accolades See also *List of films based on video games References }} Further reading * External links * * * * * Category:2010 films Category:2010 3D films Category:2010s science fiction films Category:2010s action films Category:Action thriller films Category:Apocalyptic films Category:Canadian action films Category:Canadian horror films Category:Cloning in fiction Category:German action films Category:German horror films Category:English-language films Category:Films directed by Paul W. S. Anderson Category:Films set in Los Angeles, California Category:Films set in Tokyo Category:Films shot digitally Category:Films shot in Tokyo Category:Films shot in Toronto Category:Girls with guns films Category:Post-apocalyptic films Category:Science fiction action films Category:Science fiction horror films Category:Resident Evil films Category:Screen Gems films Category:Sequel films Category:Films about viral outbreaks